It’s hard for to say the words “Blue Christmas” without hearing the late Elvis Presley’s rich baritone voice. Elvis isn’t credited with starting the liturgical trend with his 1957 hit song, but “Blue Christmas” services have increased significantly among United Methodist churches in the first two decades of the 21st century.
According to Wikipedia, “Blue Christmas” shares its origins with pagan rituals marking the winter solstice when daylight is shortest in the Northern Hemisphere. “Also called the Longest Night in the Western Christian tradition, (Blue Christmas) is a day in the Advent season marking the longest night of the year. On this day, some churches in Western Christian denominations hold a church service that honors people who have lost loved ones and are experiencing grief. These include parishes of Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Moravianism and Reformed Christianity.”
Wikipedia also notes “an interesting convergence” for services held on Dec. 21, which is also the traditional “feast day” for Saint Thomas the Apostle. Some observances note that Thomas’ struggle to believe in Jesus’ resurrection resembles the struggle of many for whom the holiday season marks emotional darkness and grief at the loss of loved ones and from trauma or other life events.”
Arkansas Online also notes the “Blue Christmas” idea didn’t begin with Elvis. In fact, it also didn’t begin with famed country singer Ernest Tubb, who in 1950 covered the song written two years earlier by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson. That year, “the song as Tubb covered it was Billboard’s No. 1 jukebox hit for a week in January 1950.” The site also notes the phrase “a blue Christmas” was first documented around 1900 in a letter from Lord Kitchener about the deaths of more than 500 British troops during the Boer War in South Africa.
Perhaps because of grief over the high number of churches exiting The United Methodist Church in the past 18 months, two annual conferences in the South Central Jurisdiction boast big lists of “Blue Christmas” services this year.
Perhaps because of grief over the high number of churches exiting The United Methodist Church in the past 18 months, two annual conferences in the South Central Jurisdiction boast big lists of “Blue Christmas” services this year. The South Central Jurisdiction — an eight-state region of U.S. United Methodist churches including Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas — has had 1,586 churches “disaffiliate” out of the total 7,654 churches that have left the denomination since 2019.
The Arkansas Annual Conference shows 21 “Blue Christmas” worship services planned Dec. 1 through Dec. 21 from Fort Smith and Fayetteville in the north near the Oklahoma state line to Hot Springs and Pine Bluff in the south. The state capital, Little Rock, in the state center, lists four services. In Sherwood, a suburb about 20 minutes northeast of Little Rock, Sylvan Hills UMC expanded its Dec. 4 Blue Christmas observance as a “Surviving Grief and the Holidays” workshop that included lunch and guest speaker Simone Brock, bereavement specialist from Arkansas Hospice.
In the Dallas-based North Texas Conference, “Blue Christmas” services stand at the top of the conference’s website home page. The North Texas conference anticipates a merger with Central Texas and Northwest Texas conferences in 2024, so it includes a wide geographic area. A “find-a-service” interactive map shows 88 “Blue Christmas” services stretching from three United Methodist churches in Round Rock, Texas, about 20 miles north of Austin, to Burkburnett, 15 miles north of Wichita Falls near Texas’ northern border with Oklahoma. Services also are listed from Fort Worth eastward to Paris, Texas, located 155 miles northwest of Shreveport, La.
The North Texas webpage explains: “Blue Christmas Worship Experience offers a safe space for anyone feeling lost or alone during the holidays. It welcomes all backgrounds, beliefs and struggles, providing support and encouragement through music, prayer, and messages of hope.”
North Texas also gives resources for churches to use in crafting their “Blue Christmas” worship and providing pastoral care after worship.
Discipleship Ministries, the United Methodist program agency providing local church resources, endorses the idea of “Blue Christmas” services.